Hungarian national airline Malév shuts down

Hungarian national carrier ceases all flights as of this morning. Caboodle.hu will provide updates throughout the day on the situation.

Photo illustration by All Hungary News

A departure sign at Budapest airport indicating the cancellation of all Malév flights and a screenshot of the message on the airline's website regarding its sudden shutdown are superimposed over a scene at the airport this morning.

Hungarian national airline Malév collapsed into insolvency on Friday, ceasing all flights after more than 60 years of operations and stranding thousands of passengers in Budapest and cities as far away as Israel.

Passengers at Budapest airport were informed this morning at 7:00 a.m. that all outbound flights were cancelled.

"Unfortunately, what we feared the most and did everything to avoid has come to pass," the company said in a statement. "Although until recently there still has been hope that the operation could continue and passengers still fully trusted us, news reports in the recent few days have caused our service partners to lose trust and overnight began to demand advance payments for their services. This has accelerated our cash outflow to such an extent that the airline's liquidity situation has become unsustainable. It is also known that the owner, despite its best efforts, cannot continue to provide financial resources for our operation after the EU's negative decision. In light of all the above, the Board has decided to end the operation of the Hungarian national airlines. We apologize to all our passengers."

In a communique published on malev.com the company said that ticket holders would be informed by customer services about alternate travel arrangements and compensation.

Individuals impacted by the shutdown can call the following phone numbers: 06-40-21-21-21 from within Hungary, and +36-802-11-11 from outside the country.

On Tuesday the government issued a decree providing assistance to any passengers who purchased tickets for flights scheduled no more than three days after a shutdown in operations, as well as those who have traveled abroad with the airline and who are scheduled to return before the end of February.